Nun accuses Louisiana of blocking death row clemency appeals in lawsuit

Sister Helen Prejean, known for 1995 film Dead Man Walking, accues board of pardons of breaking state’s public meetings law

Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun and anti-death penalty advocate, is accusing Louisiana’s board of pardons of breaking the state’s public meetings law to effectively delay clemency petitions for death row inmates.

The action pits the 84-year-old sister, who came to prominence as the author of the book behind the 1995 film Dead Man Walking, against Louisiana’s far-right attorney general, Jeff Landry. Landry is part of a legal effort seeking to block the pardon board from hearing mass clemency petitions.

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Louisiana student punished by school for dancing at private party

Kaylee Timonet was stripped of student government title and denied scholarship support after video surfaced of her at party

A high school senior in Louisiana was stripped of her student government president title and scholarship opportunities after a video circulating on social media showed the 17-year-old girl dancing with friends at a party last week.

Kaylee Timonet, a senior at Walker high school, was seen dancing at a private homecoming afterparty on 30 September, behind a friend who was twerking. Earlier this week, the school principal said he would revoke her leadership role and assistance in scholarship applications.

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Louisiana police accused of ‘unconscionable’ abuse in ‘Brave Cave’

Baton Rouge officers allegedly brutalized and disrobed detainees in storage shed once used for anti-street crime unit

Across from an industrial hose and gasket supplier’s office, in a mostly empty and fenced-off lot behind a precinct house belonging to the police department of Louisiana’s capital city, there sits a white storage shed without any markings explaining its purpose.

That single-story warehouse – within a couple of blocks of a daycare center, an eatery specializing in chicken wings and a gasoline station frequented by unwary residents – is now the focus of local and federal authorities examining alarming claims that officers with the Baton Rouge police department (BRPD) took detained people there and brutalized them.

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Drought sparks drinking water concerns as saltwater creeps up Mississippi River

Louisiana residents who rely on river for drinking water warned of potential health risks in next few weeks

The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, signed an emergency declaration for the city on Friday amid concerns about saltwater from the the Gulf of Mexico that has been creeping up the drought-hit Mississippi River in Louisiana.

The declaration came amid concerns the saltwater, which is impacting the river because it is at such low levels, could impact the drinking water of thousands of residents in the next few weeks

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FBI launches inquiry into alleged abuse by police at Baton Rouge warehouse

An obscure warehouse known as the ‘Brave Cave’ was used by officers to detain and torture suspects, recent lawsuits claim

The FBI said Friday it has opened a civil rights investigation into allegations in recent lawsuits that police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, assaulted drug suspects they detained in an obscure warehouse known as the “Brave Cave.”

In one case, a man says he was taken to the warehouse and beaten so severely he needed hospital care before being booked into jail. In another, a woman claims she was strip-searched, with an officer using a flashlight to scan her body.

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Retired priest pleads not guilty to raping child in New Orleans in the late 70s

Lawrence Hecker, 92, earlier admitted to having sex with three underage boys in 1960s and 70s, but denied using violence

The retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker pleaded not guilty in a New Orleans courtroom on Wednesday, five days after he turned himself in to jail on aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft charges.

He’s accused in a grand jury indictment of raping a teenage boy in 1975 or 1976 after the unnamed victim “resisted to the utmost but … was overcome by force”.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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US scientists who used scissors to kill lab rats must be fired, activists say

Tulane university researchers accused of ‘serious’ violations that breached international protocol over animal deaths

An animal rights group is demanding the firing of researchers at a Louisiana university who killed laboratory rats with scissors and a blunt blade – and used out-of-date anesthetics for pain relief.

The episodes are detailed in separate, self-reported notices of violation to the federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (Olaw), which were sent by Tulane University in New Orleans and obtained by the Stop Animal Exploitation Now advocacy group.

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Louisiana residents told to ‘get out now’ in face of sweeping wildfire

Nearly 1,000 people in Merryville, in Beauregard parish close to Texas border, ordered to evacuate as Tiger Island fire burns nearby

A rare uncontrollable wildfire in Louisiana has forced nearly 1,000 residents to evacuate the town of Merryville in Beauregard parish, near the state’s border with Texas.

“Get out now!” the Beauregard parish sheriff’s office wrote on social media.

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Louisiana court upholds ‘lookback window’ in win for Catholic abuse victims

Law allows victims of abuse by clerics to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether deadline had otherwise lapsed

A Louisiana state appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of a law temporarily suspending filing deadlines for people seeking damages over long-ago sexual abuse claims, handing a victory to survivors and a setback to the Roman Catholic diocese opposing them in the case.

The ruling, from a panel of judges with Louisiana’s third circuit court of appeal in Lake Charles, is the first to uphold a 2021 law in the state which opened a three-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether the deadline to do so had otherwise lapsed.

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US labor department condemns surge in child labor after teen dies on the job

Duvan Tomas Perez killed at slaughterhouse while department found 4,474 children working illegally since start of fiscal year

The US Department of Labor has decried a national surge in child labor as the agency has found thousands of violations and is currently investigating the death of a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala, Duvan Tomas Perez, who was killed on the job at a slaughterhouse this month in Mississippi, reported the New York Times.

Two other 16-year-olds have died on the job in the US this year. Michael Schuls was killed on 29 June while working for a sawmill in Wisconsin. He was attempting to unjam a wood stacking machine when he was caught and pinned by the conveyor belt. Will Hampton was died in Missouri on 8 June while working at a landfill when he was pinned between a tractor trailer rig and its trailer.

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Louisiana prison guard loses job for taking in inmate’s newborn baby

Roberta Bell dismissed after offering to take in Katie Bourgeois’s baby for two months while she finished her prison term

A Louisiana prison guard has reportedly lost her job for taking in an incarcerated woman’s newborn baby for about two months while the mother finished her prison term.

The prison guard, Roberta Bell, offered to take in Katie Bourgeois’s newborn earlier this year, violating the rules against giving personal contact information to inmates at Louisiana’s Transition Center for Women, which holds people who are close to finishing their sentences.

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Catholic chaplain who sexually abused Louisiana students jailed for five years

Patrick Wattigny, former high school chaplain who resigned in 2020, pleads guilty to molesting two minors at school

The former chaplain of a Roman Catholic high school in Louisiana has pleaded guilty to molesting two minors whom he met through his work and was ordered to spend five years in prison.

Patrick Wattigny’s plea and sentence on Wednesday came after both of his victims strongly advocated for a harsher punishment. One victim, who was present, described how Wattigny spent time grooming him in the mid-1990s. The victim said Wattigny told him he could help him gain entry to heaven, then took him to a rectory to fondle his genitals. Wattigny also used his fingers to rape the victim while masturbating.

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Fourth of July overshadowed by 16 mass shootings across US

Fifteen people were killed and 94 injured across 13 states as well as Washington DC

From the nation’s capital to Fort Worth, Texas, from Florin, California, in the west to the Bronx, New York, in the east, the Fourth of July long weekend in the US was overshadowed by 16 mass shootings in which 15 people were killed and nearly 100 injured.

The Gun Violence Archive, an authoritative database on gun violence in America, calculated the grim tally using its definition of a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people excluding the shooter are killed or injured by firearms.

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Millions swelter under extreme heat as climate crisis tightens grip on US – live

Heat dome of high pressure hovers over Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma as thousands remain without power in Chicago with heavy rains knocking down trees and power lines

The heating of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans by the burning of fossil fuels made the current extreme heatwave across the us at least five times more likely, according to a recent analysis by Climate Central, a climate science non-profit.

The rolling heatwave marks the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world.

If you have this sort of high-pressure system sitting stationary over a region, you can have these really impressive heatwaves.

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US senator denounced as ‘profoundly ignorant man’ over remarks on Mexico

John Kennedy’s comments about Mexicans ‘eating cat food’ came as he urged the US military to enter country to ‘stop the cartels’

Mexicans “would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback” Steakhouse restaurant if it were not for their nation’s proximity to the US, and their country should be invaded because of the presence of drug cartels there, the US senator John Neely Kennedy said.

The Louisiana Republican’s racist remarks drew a strong condemnation from Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, who called Kennedy “a profoundly ignorant man”. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meanwhile, urged the 37 million Americans of Mexican descent – along with other Latinos in the US – “not to vote for people with this very arrogant, very offensive and very foolish mentality” in the future.

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Louisiana teenager shot by neighbor as she played hide-and-seek

The latest shooting of an innocent victim spotlights ‘stand your ground’ laws, which some Republicans are trying to strengthen

A 14-year-old girl was playing hide-and-seek with her friends when she was shot in the head by her neighbor in Louisiana, according to authorities.

The shooting on Sunday adds to a recent string of gun attacks across the US aimed at people who were engaged in innocuous activities when they encountered their shooter.

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Battle brews over LGBTQ+ books in Louisiana libraries

State’s attorney general faces backlash after releasing report saying LGBTQ+ voices might be silenced in libraries

Louisiana’s attorney general – a Republican gubernatorial candidate – is receiving backlash from LGBTQ+ activists after releasing a report recently that they say might silence LGBTQ+ voices in libraries.

The brewing fight over censorship in Louisiana’s libraries has opened a new front in the culture war pitting political conservatives and the LGBTQ+ community. Far rightwingers across the US tried hundreds of times last year alone to ban more than 1,600 books with themes of gender or sexuality from public libraries, schools and universities, saying they wish to protect children from accessing them. But LGBTQ+ activists say there is no evidence that such material is readily available for children without the bans or that it primes minors to be harmed, and they are instead a tactic for conservatives to silence voices which offend their cultural values.

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Mississippi tornado: death toll of 25 highest in the state in 21st century

Fatalities from tornado the worst in 50 years, with more severe storms expected in the region on Sunday

Devastating storms and at least one large tornado which ripped through rural Mississippi on Friday night left 25 people dead in the state, dozens injured and rescue workers hauling people from rubble throughout Saturday, as the state reeled from its highest tornado-related death toll in decades.

Severe weather pounded several southern states overnight as the centers of destruction emerged on Saturday morning as the small, majority Black towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in the Mississippi delta.

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Residents of Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ announce lawsuit against local officials

Residents accuse St James parish officials of civil rights and religious liberty violations by approving petrochemical plants

Residents of St James parish, Louisiana, have unveiled a federal lawsuit accusing local government officials of civil rights and religious liberty violations by repeatedly approving the construction of petrochemical plants in two majority Black districts.

The lawsuit, part of a wave of litigation in the heavily industrialised corridor known as “Cancer Alley”, also calls for a moratorium on the construction of new plants and the extension of existing facilities in St James parish.

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Louisiana anti-abortion group calls on doctors to stop denying care exempted by ban

Group speaks out after hospitals refused to offer treatment for a woman who had a near deadly miscarriage citing ambiguous law

An influential group in Louisiana that has long opposed abortion access is calling out medical providers and their legal advisers who – for an apparent fear of liability – have cited the state’s ban on most abortions to deny treatments that remain legal.

The group spoke out after hospitals in the state’s capital, Baton Rouge, refused to provide treatments for a woman who had a near deadly miscarriage.

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